Sunday, September 25, 2016

Quaker Speak: How Many Quakers Are There in the World? (And Where Are They?)

I think God has a twisted sense of humor. I think God told a whole bunch of people with really divergent ideas of faith and faithfulness they are all Quaker and then turned them loose and told them to go forth and live according to their beliefs and figure otut what they have in common.
This Quaker Speak episode has a cool map of where Quakers are (Kenya and then everywhere  else ) The video also has some cool thoughts to prepare for World Quaker day which also sometimes masquerades as Reformation Sunday. This year World Quaker Day will be October 2.


Faith and Climate Action Conference October 8 University christian Church

RantWoman ENTHUSIASTICALLY endorses the upcoming Faith and Climate Action conference coming up October 8 and University Christian Church in Seattle.

RantWoman had visions of reproducing graphics and raving in detail about proposed program but RantWoman has decided to punt and point readers to any of several options for signing up!

Sunburst in Stained Glass

 KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

JAY O’HARA, CO-DEFENDANT OF THE LOBSTER BOAT BLOCKADE, CO-FOUNDER OF THE CLIMATE DISOBEDIENCE CENTER & CO-LEADER OF THE PIPELINE PILGRIMAGE BLOCKADE.



Faith and Climate Action: via the Church Council of Greater Seattle

Faith and Climate Action: via Faith Action Network

faith and Climate Action via Unitarians

Friday, September 23, 2016

Blessings, Bountiful Blessings!

May the Lord Bless us and keep us and make his / her ./zir face to shine upon us!

Uh wait, the blessings are so bountiful RantWoman does not quite know what to do with them.

Blessing 1:
RantWoman received lovely fun feedback. Youthful public officials are reading and ENJOYING RantWoman's tweets about an esoteric transportation related topic.

OH GOOD. RantWoman enjoys her efforts, AND RantWoman is NOT going away.

Hold both points in the Light.

Blessing 2:

RantWoman is featured in her Meeting's bulleting in the following form:
Query: What are we doing to make the larger community aware of our Friends Meeting?

Reference "...we have confused an 'implicit Quakerism' with not knowing how to talk about our faith - or not being willing to do so." "We fail our Quaker ancestors and tradition when we remain silent about our faith away from our Meetingroom's doors." LizOpp, RantWoman blog, 9-28-10

Now if only RantWoman had a search string to find said post faster than the baths involving the post date.

Blessing 3: Praise Jayzus!

"I'd love your feedback.."

Do you REALLY want RantWoman's feedback. It starts with "Thank you for inviting me to the party." Stay tuned for Further Light. Warning: high probability that Inner Blowtorch will be involved.

Blessing 4: In other news
Praise Jesus.

RantWoman is packing for Quarterly Meeting, theme something to do with Getting Along with Each other.

Oh Holy Jesus!

RantWoman found her "F*CK WAR" T-shirt.

It used to say "F*CK WAR" in Russian, a la Tatu's US television appearances where one network's censors caught the profanity after another one did not. NOw "F*CK WAR" has been laundered into invisibility --to everyone but RantWoman.

The "F*CK WAR"  events of 2003 have morphed / mutated into multinational multiethnic  regionwide fiascoes.

Praise jesus?

Blessing 5: Bless us oh Lord and these thy servants.

RantWoman's current Light about why Quaker Voice in / on / over / under WHATEVER WA Public Policy is just not doing it as a new name for...

Sometimes being a Quaker is about LISTENING. RantWoman hears a number of voices resonating with her concern that there is a need to STFU AND LISTEN about several matters related to racial and Economic justice. RantWoman has clear leadings about further steps in this regard and is VERY grateful for someone who does LISTEN and does offer feedback RantWoman digests.

Please hold this whole circus in the Light.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

US bombs still maim as Obama prepares to visit Laos

A blog as filing cabinet bearing witness to the lingering consequences of US warmaking and the need for responsibility and reconciliation


Bus Blessings Grapevine Edition

Will this new item make it out of RantWoman's mouth during the wondrous recently proclaimed specially fenced off section of worship called Joys and Concerns? Stay tuned and in the meantime celebrate it now while it's fresh in RantWoman's memory:

News from a bus ride on the way to midweek worship with someone who turns out to be a former neighbor of Friend who Brings Odd Teas and who misses her as a friend!

Friend Who Brings Odd Teas has moved to AZ where her sister lives and the condition that makes her life really difficult for herself and for lots of people around her is doing a lot better. Is it the family support? The Climate? RantWoman has no idea. RantWoman is so glad to hear of the friendship from the former neighbor in the building where Friend Who Brings Odd Teas used to live.

RantWoman is also a little intimidated: Friend Who Brings Odd Teas was a pillar of the Saturday shower time our Meeting ran as a ministry to homeless people in our neighborhood for awhile a few years ago. RantWoman considers this ministry extremely valuable but has never managed even the slightest leading to show up personally and support its operation.

Perhaps that is enough said but RantWoman definitely sends blessings in the direction of AZ.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Knocking 'em off left and right

Dear God

Would you maybe, please, pretty please shepherd the following thoughts out of RantWoman's mouth in at least SLIGHTLY more genteel terms:

Bless the Lord Oh My Soul. Beloved Friend from another Meeting is now not merely suffering from Dementia but rather deceased, RantWoman no longer has any cause to fret about him needing an extra set of eyes to find his way around the men's room next year at Annual Session. Bless the Lord Oh My Soul with particularly tender thoughts toward Beloved Friend and his wife of many decades.

Oh and knocking off other Beloved Friend just because breast cancer had recurred and she did not want any more treatment. Really? Must you? And especially must you without even a chance to say goodbye. Really! Must you?

In faithfulness,

RantWoman.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Reprise of Rant Past and Blessings

Reprise of Rant Past

http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2011/09/freight-train-first-week-of-school.html

As part of RantWoman's beginning of the school year blessings, RantWoman wishes children sensible adults who, for instance, can listen to matters of staring in the lunchroom or other problems that cannot necessarily be helped and as adults walk alongside kids experience.

And yeah, sure, if you as an adult, say a teacher, need to take a mental health day over something or other involving a child, think of the kid and what the reasons for your mental health day mean for the kid!

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Iris Graville: My First Time in Meeting for Worship in Russian

Iris Graville: My First Time in Meeting for Worship (Russian from quakers,.ru)

Russian Translation: my first time in Meeting for Worship

RantWoman collects essays about how people become Quakers.

RantWoman is curious how this experience looks to Russians. RantWoman apologizes for not being organized to type in Russian, but will post any comments left in response to the question.

RantWoman is generally skeptical of machine translation and  and may or may not get around  to holding a machine translation bakeoff to illustrate the problems behind RantWoman's passion. Oh happy day.

Friday, September 2, 2016

Whack in Half. Boil till Mushy. Run through Strainer

RantWoman has a pretty good idea who left the box of small and mostly underripened pears at Meeting on Sunday. RantWoman has heard previously of pear abundance on a certain tree actually near where she lives.

The box of pears was still there Wednesday after midweek worship and RantWoman had a ride home. RantWoman scooped up the entire box and the Rehabilitation of Written Off Food Products Division of the RantWoman test kitchen went to work.

(No, RantWoman did NOT snap a pic with her cellphone. NOr does RantWoman have any patience with image libraries. Use your dang imagination! Oh wait!)


Tiny pears looking more delicious than the ones in the box
Looking Delicious
RantWoman's approach:

Whack in Half.

Boil till Mushy while otherwise puttering at home.

Run through Strainer:

Voila: about six quarts of Pear Sauce distributed between fridge and freezer!

Not a strategy one really wants to rely on to feed a whole family for the winter.

Not particularly the option one wants after The Big One hits.

But simple and yummy enough to brighten RantWoman's diet for a few days as fall demands her body shift gears anyway.

Quaker Brain Candy: Thank you Phillip Gulley

Such is the state of the world,, such is RantWoman's state of mind:

Lately, RantWoman has really been enjoying newly discovered Quaker Brain Candy, otherwise known as Quaker pastor Phillip Gulley's novels about Harmony Friends Meeting. Harmony Friends Meeting is a fictional faith community loosely based on the life of the Friends Church in IN where Gulley is the pastor.

RantWoman as been delighted to discover these works via the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Some of the time RantWoman finds it still far too tempting to whine about audio books; life is better when RantWoman just shuts up and listens. RantWoman IS on principle allowed to speed things up and to be grateful for human voices and a storage algorithm that keeps speech comprehensible much more nicely at higher speeds than any of RantWoman's options for computerized voices. Now your are welcome for the free unsolicited trip to Planet RantWoman.

Readers already at least a little bit familiar with small town Hoosier culture and the various tropes of holiness Christianity will probably get the humor more easily. By Hoosier culture RantWoman means both being passionate about a televangelist and the local boy who has risen through the city civil service to be in charge of all 39 manhole covers in town.

Also hard to miss: the "Friendly women." The Friendly Women are not in fact so friendly. They leap to collisions with frightening ease and then shamelessly gossip. Other more enjoyable stories do emerge; nevertheless beware the friendly women, for about the usual ladies church circle  reasons.

Then there is Dale Hinshaw, known for charming commitments such as spreading scripture messages via helium balloons or in chicken eggs (don't ask; read the books!)
He generally has a dour attitude about life and lives in permanent fear of democrats, liberals, and sometimes even his pastor's scriptural understandings. That is part of what makes the books fun!

Now RantWoman will return to the various topics short-circuiting in RantWoman's brain.

Happy Reading.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms Through The Decades

Because the world desperately needs this historical stylistic sampling of ways to render "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms."